Martial King’s Retired Life – Vol. 1 Ch. 39

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The Case Within the Poisoned Gold Case (Part 1)

This is told from the emperor’s perspective.

The last time I left the palace was over half a year ago. I came here for Yiren and Cheng’er but I’d say it counts as taking a break to take a breather.

The matters with Yiren and Cheng’er can be considered settled, but this Ming Feizhen fella was part of my calculations.

“Your name is Ming Feizhen?”

“Uuh… Yes, that is my name.”

I looked at this kid who stuttered as soon as he spoke. I found him quite interesting and said: “Your surname is Ming? How interesting. I don’t venture into the pugilistic world often, but I hear most of the rumours. I’ve never heard of a young hero with the surname Ming.”

I cracked a joke with him, but never expected him to get nervous and break into a sweat.

“I-I’m twenty eight this year. You can’t call me a young hero anymore. My surname, Ming, is actually quite common! You don’t have to think so much of it.”

Is it common?

I pondered it for a bit. Yeah, that’s true.

“Your surname is Ming? Hmm, there aren’t any prevalent families in the martial world with the surname Ming. But if I recall correctly, the Patriarch of Mount Daluo in Bei Ping had the surname Ming.”

Ming Feizhen suddenly wore a strange expression. He then lowered his face and asked as though he was scared: “How much do you know?”

Huh?

I was a little confused and slightly angry. Ming Feizhen is but just a mere low-ranking constable. Even if he’s ill and I said that he could skip the formalities, that’s not a license for him to speak to me however he pleases.

Forget it, forget it. That’s not important. I have something to say to him and if I don’t get it off my chest, I’ll feel suffocated.

“Let’s skip the idle chatter. I have something to say to you.”

Ming Feizhen now wore an expression as if the sky had come falling down or it was the end of the world. He looked at me stunned, grinded his teeth and said: “I knew you had something to say!”

Me: “Huh?”

I must have a stupefied look on my face right now.

Ming Feizhen held his head and looked as if he were having a breakdown, and said: “Your majesty! My appearance is so distorted, and yet you’re still able to recognise me! You’re godly!”

What exactly does he mean by that?

I scratched my head and asked: “How am I godly?”

Wait a second. I was the one that wanted to speak with him. How’d it turn into him asking me questions?

I glared at him out of curiosity: “I heard that you single-handedly solved the Orange Prince’s case.”

Ming Feizhen complained with a sigh: “I wouldn’t be like this if it weren’t for that shitty case.”

Why is this rascal speaking to me so casually? Is it because he got poisoned or is it because of me?

It’s a long story.

It’s hard to fulfill the role of an emperor, and it’s not easy to fulfill the role of a father. My late friend Brother Shen was very fortunate to have a good daughter like Yiren. Of my seven sons, six of them are troublemakers.

The six of them are forming parties and fighting each other for the throne. To maintain harmony, I sent four of them to cities outside the capital and only kept two in the capital. But even though there are just two of them, they still make sure to make life hard for me.

He’s the son of my main wife, and is the queen’s eldest son. He’s the one with the right to inherit the throne so he’s always been mad at me for not bestowing the crown prince title upon him. As such, he took bribes, engages in corrupt activities and is gathering power right under my nose.

My entourage has always been on his case of corruption and reported their progress to me. I’ve seen the book that Ming Feizhen pretended to hand to me by accident before. However, I left him be because one, he’s my son after all, and two, he’s also a prince. I didn’t want to take any drastic measures if he wasn’t going overboard, so the book didn’t serve much purpose when I read it.

But Cha Yuan who was faithful to his post died unjustly investigated the case. I buried the book with him as a form of reward and as a memento. I didn’t expect Cheng’er to still be chasing Cha Yuan’s whereabouts and wouldn’t spare him even after death.

I knew what he was up to as soon as I heard he sent people to Cha Yuan’s home. I could’ve moved the book before he found it, but that wouldn’t allow me to send him a warning. I wanted to punish him and his dead men for thinking they were above the law.

Instead, I had members of my entourage race to Cha Yuan’s tomb and place a box of poisoned gold in there.

I was planning to send someone to give him a gentle warning after his men died upon contact with it, so that he’d straighten up.